Hello from New Zealand

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kiwivaliant

Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2011
Messages
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Location
Auckland
Hi im Darren and this is my latest project.

Its a Australian designed, New Zealand built, 1966 Chrysler Valiant VC

It started life as a 6 cylinder running unboosted drums at all corners on 5x4" pcd 14x5.45" rims
It was owned by the last guy, for almost a decade, he bought a ex-street/strip motor and box combo which was good for 12's, The motor is a small block LA 360 out of an american sourced car, featuring aftermarket cams, pistons, and j-port heads, as well as a edelbrock torker 2 intake and a 750cfm vac secondary holley, it was claimed to be good for just shy of 400hp, which sounds about on the money for how fast this motor has run. The internal specs are a big unknown.
The box is a rebuilt and shift kitted torqueflite 727, it was claimed to be recently rebuilt, but the trans pan is leaking (factory pan), it also features a factory kick down linkage and coolant hard lines which will have to be modified to cable and pipe fittings respectively.
This car was sold to be for a price I couldnt pass up, the owner literally sold everything he owned as he had just secured a very good job over in Australia. His whole life went on online auction site trademe which is New Zealand's equivalent of eBay.

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I have just bought later model Aussy Chrysler Charger VJ Vented disc brake front end, which im in the process of overhauling with all new parts.

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I have also bought all new carpet, had the seats retrimmed, and fitted a new IHRA/NHRA (new zealand uses IHRA as its drag sanctioning body) spec battery box as the battery had been moved to the boot but not mounted.

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Inside is the biggest battery this box could fit, as this is a street car which isnt going to be used very often.
The wiring needs to be cleaned up however as its an electical fire waiting to happen, but that is a job for another day.

Cheers
 
Welcome! Cool Valiant, we don't see many, and beautiful country you're from...more pics please?
 
Yeah welcome darren from the other side of oz,ya can't go wrong with that combo and discs make a huuuge improvement to stopping power.I did mine 6 mths ago and she stops heaps better.And a very nice VC you have too.
 
Cheers for all the replies, and as promised a few more pics, its a bit of a work in progress but heres some from the interior, most of this stuff went in, and has since been pulled back out. Typical project issues throwing a few unknowns.

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believe this dash setup is similar to the 'cuda from the same era, but you guys wouldnt be used to seeing things on the wrong side!

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The rest of the retrimmed seats still in their plastic

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I would like to keep this car looking much the same as it is now, and its proving to be a bit of pain keeping things under the hood, but I like the look of how it sits 'flying below radar' on steel rims, with no stickers or badges to set it apart from the flock.
 
Welcome Darren, from an ex Kiwi now living in OZ. Love the VC's, would have been my choice if I hadn't found my S Series. Are you going to up grade that unboosted master cylinder to the matching VJ off set booster and tandum master? Easy upgrade as the next step. 12 second street car on drums! the last owner must be game.

Marty
 
Welcome to FABO from SoCal. You're going to have fun here!
Nice VC. Betcha it'll get you back from the grocery store before the ice cream melts! Always fun to see the cars Chrysler built in other parts of the world.
 
Welcome Darren, from an ex Kiwi now living in OZ. Love the VC's, would have been my choice if I hadn't found my S Series. Are you going to up grade that unboosted master cylinder to the matching VJ off set booster and tandum master? Easy upgrade as the next step. 12 second street car on drums! the last owner must be game.

Marty

I think the last guys intention was always to run disc brakes, its just he never got this far.

At this stage im having trouble sourcing decent parts (been looking since june), so the plan is to run a new 1" bore wilwood billet master unboosted, on a mopar performance early to late MC adaptor.
I was going to boost these brakes, but since talking to one of my mates with a v8 VG putting out similar power, im now not convinced its worth it, his car is well looked after but you wouldnt know his brakes were unboosted, they work so well, and this car will be lighter.
I have all the tools on hand now to build my own hard brake lines, so brakes are next on the list.

Should have a new set of one piece replacement rotors next payday, and will throw in some new bearings and studs, and im looking to score a set of VJ charger rims with good rubber to get it rolling around the yard on as the stud pattern changes to late 5 x 4.5"
I can slow time rekitting the calipers but i prefer keeping the car off stands and rolling so it can be moved.

Was quite funny, when I stripped these brakes down, they had brand new wheel bearings, and barely broken in pads, yet the rotors were worn scary thin !!!
 
welcom, joined up about 3 weeks ago bud, nice stuff on here. I'm from Australia.
 
How come Mopars (A bodies, even), on other continents get fold down REAR center armrests?
 
As a lot of cars in New Zealand were imported they usually had all the high end options. Growing up in NZ dad had an AP6 Regal, now I live in Australia the ones here are basic in comparision. GM Holden products from 67 on all had disc brakes in NZ, in Australia they still had drum options in 71! So little NZ has a lot of the good gear, it costs almost as much to import the base model as a top end model!
 
As a lot of cars in New Zealand were imported they usually had all the high end options. Growing up in NZ dad had an AP6 Regal, now I live in Australia the ones here are basic in comparision. GM Holden products from 67 on all had disc brakes in NZ, in Australia they still had drum options in 71! So little NZ has a lot of the good gear, it costs almost as much to import the base model as a top end model!

This particular car rolled off the production line at todd autobodies, in petone, a suburb of Wellington which is New Zealands capital city. Bit of geography there for the people unlucky enough to not live in gods own.

New Zealand was a different country back in those days, we had heavy regulation regarding importing cars to protect our own auto industry and imported cars either carried extortionary tariffs unless you were well heeled enough to have considerable 'overseas funds', money invested in foreign countries which on paper made importing look a lot nicer from a pure economic stand point for our small country. Because of this It was only well paid business owners, executives, doctors and the such who owned brand new cars, the rest paid reasonably good money for their vehicles second hand, this would have led to what Marty had noticed regarding the higher trim level.

In the late 80's and early 90's our local motor industry was on the rocks, as a lot of smaller operations world wide also wound down with economic pressures, import tariffs were removed as they were no longer necessary, New Zealand still has an affinity for second hand cars, and the majority of people dont buy depreciating assets brand spankers unless the cost need be not a concern to the individual, We currently have some of the cheapest car prices in the world, and a very high rate of car ownership, there are literally more then 2 cars to every kiwi !!!

Bit of a history lesson there, but we kiwis, like the aussies 'across the ditch' have a strong culture of being car crazy.
 
Welcome to FABO kiwivaliant!

You will enjoy this site - There are lots of great people and information

Looking forward to seeing more pictures - We love pictures!


Enjoy the site!

Ma Snart

My 67 Cuda for your viewing pleasure - more pictures in my gallery
 

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